See the newest Instagram and blog updates from Hong Kong including our day tours, cool activities and the Hong Kong life in general.
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After an epic battle, a great city lies in ruins, but the Earth itself is saved. As humanity begins to pick up the pieces, a shadowy group emerges to try to take control of history. Meanwhile, an ancient and powerful new menace sets its sights on Earth. A new group of humans, led by Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg), helps Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) and the Autobots rise up to meet their most fearsome challenge yet: a worldwide war of good versus evil.
Photo credit: visitkearney.org
With the help of allies Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and DA Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Batman (Christian Bale) has been able to keep a tight lid on crime in Gotham City. But when a vile young criminal calling himself the Joker (Heath Ledger) suddenly throws the town into chaos, the caped Crusader begins to tread a fine line between heroism and vigilantism.
The pandemic is a testament that we are all in this together. Hello! Hong Kong tours would like to make you feel that you are not alone in this pandemic and that just like you, we are all doing our best to keep our heads together and keep going.
Allen is originally from the Philippines and has been living here in Hong Kong since 2011. She is one of of the Admin team that oversees the Hello! Hong Kong bookings. Now that it has been pretty quiet and there are no tours in Hong Kong, what keeps her busy? Here she shares with us below her Corona Diary.
Hong Kong tours admin team manager Allen enjoying her last trip in Cebu before the lockdown was imposed.
Pre-pandemic time, the Admin team was busy answering inquiries, managing bookings, and coordinating with our customers and tour guides. Now, that this pandemic has put a stop to travel and we have more time on our hands, what keeps you busy?
To be honest, I miss the feeling of answering inquiries from our customers. I love the feeling of helping them out on their travel plans and giving them suggestions on the best tour that we can offer them. Now, that we have more time in our hands, Laura and the rest of the Admin team are working on individual projects to improve our tour contents.
When I am not working, I am spending my time with my family and our dogs in the Philippines. I am also helping out my mother on baking! It is called Puto Leche Flan or steamed cake with eggcustard.
Now that Hong Kong is observing social distancing measures to prevent the spread of the virus, what is the place that you miss visiting to the most and why?
I am currently enjoying my Family time in the Philippines. In the midst of the lockdowns, there is no other place I would rather be but here with my Family. So I am missing Hong Kong a lot!
We know that you also suffer from wanderlust. When this Pandemic is finally over, and you can go anywhere where will your wanderlust take you?
Hello! Tours is operating in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan. So I would want to visit the last 2 cities! It would be a great experience to meet in person our team over there! Another on my list is to go back to Thailand and do more sightseeing there.
What is the one thing that you this very unfortunate event has taught you and why?
Having a 2 months lockdown in the Philippines, I realized that our time is so precious that we have to spend more time with our family. I realized that it is okay to slow down in life for a moment. The Pandemic is a wake-up call that we need to take good care of each other and to show more kindness to other people. It is true when they say that “No Man is an Island”. It also taught us to be a more responsible citizen that in order to help the fight for the virus we need to change our mindset and behavior.
My message to all Hello! Hong Kong friends and guests, we cannot wait to welcome you all back in Hong Kong. Hello! Tours will always be here and will come back stronger!
Photo credit: Amazon
Author: Ian Lambot, Greg Girard
Year: Originally published in 1993
Buy it here: Amazon, Book Depository
Summary:
For nearly 50 years, the extraordinary community of Kowloon Walled City cut a dark presence in the heart of Hong Kong. Yet without legislation and with little regard for basic services, planning regulations or building standards, the City not only survived, it positively thrived. But how could such a place exist in a modern metropolis without administrative oversight - 'triply neglected', to use a Hong Kong term - by the British, Chinese and Hong Kong Governments? Who would choose to live there? And why? Some of these questions were answered in our book City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City, but for various reasons a number of key elements were left out. City of Darkness Revisited fills in these gaps and brings the story up to date, mixing photographs and interviews found in the original book with a wide range of new material that has come to light over the past 20 years, in the form of new photographs, drawings, maps, documents and essays, many previously unpublished.
City of Darkness Revisited explores in greater detail than ever before the Walled City's dramatic growth between 1945 and 1990, while at the same time looking into the darker sides of its past and exposing the truth behind many of the myths that gave the City its abiding sense of mystery. We explain how the City's clearance came about and shine a light on why previous attempts to rid Hong Kong of this notorious enclave always failed, stymied over the matter of its dual jurisdiction. Bringing the story up to date, the book also discusses how perceptions of the City have changed so dramatically in the 20 years since its demolition - shunned by most Hong Kong residents during its lifetime, but now seen as part of the city's rich cultural and architectural heritage. And finally, we explore how the City and the myths that swirl around it have infiltrated architectural debate and popular culture through film, literature, Japanese manga, video games, art and design.
City of Darkness Revisited offers a unique insight into the remarkable community that was Kowloon Walled City, home to some 35,000 people at its peak and by far the most densely populated neighbourhood the world has ever known.
Book description credit: Book Depository
Photo credit: Amazon
Author: Chris Patten
Year: 2017
Buy it here: Amazon, Book Depository
Summary:
Chris Patten was a cradle Catholic (hence First Confession), became on the most prominent Tory 'Wets' of the 1980s and 1990s, and went on to hold a series of prominent public offices - Chairman of the Conservative Party, the last Governor of Hong Kong, European Commissioner for External Affairs, Chancellor of Oxford University, Chairman of the BBC, advisor to the Pope - as he self-deprecatingly puts it 'a Grand Poo-bah, the Lord High Everything Else'. He writes with wry humour about his time in all these offices, taking us behind the scenes and showing us unexpected sides of many of the great figures of the day. No political writer is so purely enjoyable as Chris Patten.
Book description credit: Amazon
Photo credit: Amazon
““Reminiscent of Somerset Maugham at his storytelling best… Suzie Wong is enchanting.””.
—New York Herald Tribune
“Refreshingly different… excitingly real and vivid.”
—Boston Globe
“A thrilling, imaginative experience.”
—Washington Post & Times Herald
Author: Richard Mason
Year: 1957
Buy it here: Amazon, Book Depository
Summary:
Robert is the only resident of the Nam Kok hotel not renting his room by the hour when he meets Suzie at the bar. She becomes his muse and they fall in love. But even in Hong Kong, where many white expatriates have Chinese mistresses, their romance could jeopardize the things they each hold dear. Set in the mid-1950s, The World of Suzie Wong is a beautifully written time capsule of a novel. First published more than fifty years ago, it resonated with readers worldwide, inspiring a film starring William Holden, a ballet, and even a reggae song. Now readers can experience the romance of this groundbreaking story anew.
Book description credit: Amazon
Photo credit: Amazon
“A fine balance between substance and readability”.
—Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal
“Carroll offers a cogent synthetic history from the 1840s Opium War to the present, with references geared to English-language readers. . . . Clearly written [and] accessible, especially for students working with English-language sources. . . . Recommended.”
—CHOICE
“This is an extraordinary study and could be used by any level of scholar and in any number of classrooms. . . . It could easily be used in upper-level or graduate classes on the British Empire, comparative colonialism, urban studies (whether Asian or world) and Chinese history.”
—World History Connected
“John Carroll has done an excellent job of producing an engaging and up-to-date overview of the territory from the beginning of colonial rule through to the present. It will be of particular value to those who teach on Hong Kong, as they now have a book that students will find accessible and interesting, but it will also serve as a good entry point for those who want to learn more about the development of this distinctive region.”
—New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies
Author: John M. Carroll
Year: 2007
Buy it here: Amazon, Book Depository
Summary:
When the British occupied the tiny island of Hong Kong during the First Opium War, the Chinese empire was well into its decline, while Great Britain was already in the second decade of its legendary "Imperial Century." From this collision of empires arose a city that continues to intrigue observers. Melding Chinese and Western influences, Hong Kong has long defied easy categorization. John M. Carroll's engrossing and accessible narrative explores the remarkable history of Hong Kong from the early 1800s through the post-1997 handover, when this former colony became a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. The book explores Hong Kong as a place with a unique identity, yet also a crossroads where Chinese history, British colonial history, and world history intersect. Carroll concludes by exploring the legacies of colonial rule, the consequences of Hong Kong's reintegration with China, and significant developments and challenges since 1997.
Book description credit: Amazon
Photo credit: Amazon
"Laced with intrigue."
—Elle
"Evocative, poignant, and skillfully crafted, The Piano Teacher is more than an epic tale of war and a tangled, tortured love story. It is the kind of novel one consumes in great, greedy gulps, pausing (grudgingly) only when absolutely necessary. . . . If we measure the skill of a fiction writer by her ability to create characters and atmosphere so effortlessly real, so alive on the page, that the reader feels a sense of participatory anxiety--as if the act of reading gives one the power to somehow influence the outcome of purely imaginary events--then Lee should be counted among the very best in recent memory."
—The New York Times Book Review, "Editor's Choice"
"A shattering, immensely satisfying debut."
—Chicago Tribune
"War, love, betrayal--an exquisite fugue of a first novel . . . intensely readable."
—People (4 stars)
"Lee unfolds the story with the brisk grace and discretion of the society she describes."
—O, The Oprah Magazine
"Sensual and gripping."
—The New Yorker
"The novel is sustained by elegant prose and a terrific sense of place. As Graham Greene evoked Vietnam in The Quiet American, Lee, born and raised in Hong Kong long after the war, captures the city as it was during World War II, its glittering veneer barely masking the panic and corruption beneath."
—The Boston Globe
Author: Janice Y. K. Lee
Year: 2009
Buy it here: Amazon, Book Depository
Summary:
In 1942, Will Truesdale, an Englishman newly arrived in Hong Kong, falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their love affair is soon threatened by the invasion of the Japanese as World War II overwhelms their part of the world. Will is sent to an internment camp, where he and other foreigners struggle daily for survival. Meanwhile, Trudy remains outside, forced to form dangerous alliances with the Japanese—in particular, the malevolent head of the gendarmerie, whose desperate attempts to locate a priceless collection of Chinese art lead to a chain of terrible betrayals.
Ten years later, Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong and is hired by the wealthy Chen family as their daughter’s piano teacher. A provincial English newlywed, Claire is seduced by the heady social life of the expatriate community. At one of its elegant cocktail parties, she meets Will, to whom she is instantly attracted—but as their affair intensifies, Claire discovers that Will’s enigmatic persona hides a devastating past. As she begins to understand the true nature of the world she has entered, and long-buried secrets start to emerge, Claire learns that sometimes the price of survival is love.
Book description credit: Amazon
Photo credit: Amazon
"Like asking an unnervingly handsome, impossibly intelligent local where they hang out."
—Mr Hyde (Shortlist)
"The small but perfectly formed guides have become iconic."
—1843 (The Economist lifestyle magazine)
Author: Wallpaper* City Guides are compiled by the magazine’s travel experts, both by in-house editors, and correspondents who actually live in the highlighted cities, providing up-to-the-minute information.
Year: 2018
Buy it here: Amazon, Book Depository
Summary:
Your passport to global style, Wallpaper* City Guides present an insider's checklist of all you need to know about the world's most intoxicating cities. Under slick Pantone covers, these pocket-sized travel bibles unearth the hippest nightlife, the buzziest hotels, the coolest retail, the most influential art galleries and cultural spaces, the best in local design and the contemporary architecture that defines a city.
Perfectly sized for travel, discreet and easy to use, so you don't feel like a tourist, these books are ideal for either extended breaks or business trips. They are rigorously researched, and curated by an extensive network of experts, from in-house editors to in-the-know local correspondents. The series now covers more than 100 dynamic destinations.
Focus on architecture, design, luxury and style
55 stunning original colour photographs
A unique barometer of the contemporary scene
Eight main chapters with 11,000 words of insight
A map colour-coded by the hippest neighbourhoods
Book description credit: Book Depository
Photo credit: Amazon
''Grand entertainment…packed with action…gaudy and flamboyant with blood and sin, treachery and conspiracy, sex and murder…fresh and vigorous.”
—New York Times
''A fabulous epic of the Far East that will disturb and excite you…a thrilling and enticing tale of adventure and human relationships…dramatic episodes, exotic vignettes, and heady descriptive passages.”
—Baltimore Sun
Author: James Clavell
Year: 1966
Buy it here: Amazon, Book Depository
Summary:
Dirk Struan rose from humble beginnings to build Struan & Company, also known as the Noble House, into the world's largest Far East trading company. He is now the Tai-Pan--Supreme Leader--of all Tai-Pans in China. Along the way, however, he made a powerful enemy. Tyler Brock, Struan's rival from their early opium-smuggling days, also heads a large trading fleet, second in size only to Struan's. But it is not only silks and spices that drive their mutual companies' wealth--the opium trade is still booming. War between England and China might be over, but the hostilities remain. Struan and Brock come to control much of England's trade with China yet neither can control their desires or their hatred of each other. Over the years, their two families will cross paths, threatening to rip both apart, with reverberations that will echo across the generations.
Struan must fight to save his company and his family, or risk seeing everything he has created destroyed at the hands of his sworn enemy. Ambition, political intrigue, and love and lust weave their way throughout the novel the New York Times called, "grand entertainment...packed with action...with blood and sin, treachery and conspiracy, sex and murder." East and West come together in an opulent and intricately plotted narrative. A tour-de-force of historical fiction, rich in detail yet eminently readable, Tai-Pan will stay with you long after the final page.
Book description credit: Book Depository
